Brexiteers want migrants to come to England

The Daily Mail and The Daily Express want millions of immigrants to come to England.

Yes, you read that right. The most racist and xenophobic tabloids in the UK want foreigners to come and live in England. A far cry from their headlines over the pas few decades:

                                                                    (Click to enlarge)

The tabloid press (Mail & Express) are begging for immigrants -- to save our Christmas. pic.twitter.com/E6Tx4sznZ5

— Dr Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) September 24, 2021

They thought it was a good idea to get rid of millions of foreigners 'because they're stealing British jobs and are too lazy to work' but now they want them back.

Racist Britons had no idea that the British econonomy (like all economies) for a great deal rely on foreign workers. Simply be looking at numbers they could have known. But instead the listened to right wing politicil leader Nigel Farage and his friends. 

Approximately 14 percent living in Britain was not born there. Why can't people simply realize what it means to kick out 1 in 7 people out of your country? The Polish lorrydriver, the Indian foodstand, you kids' French teacher, the Dutch employer at some tech company, the French nanny, et cetera.

What would English Football look like without the 330 out of 519 players in the Premier League?

How can people be so misguided that they think it's a good idea to live in a country without foreigners?

But you can't say that most people who voted Brexit are stupid. Can you? Oh, yes you can. Because it simply is stupid to be racist.

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

He wanted more! (A short story)

When he saw her it appeared that she had been born from the power of his desire.

The past months he had woken up every day knowing that the time was right for an encounter.

In his thoughts he had called at least a 100 times 

and every time with the same result. In his fantasy their date went to full satisfaction.

He realised he would have to clean his house. What if she agreed to come with him straight away?

Finally he found the courage to meet her and so he found himself in a pizzeria with her. 

The pizza undoubtedly was delicious but that was beside the point.

What did matter was that her thigh was pressed against his 

and because of it he had trouble keeping the conversation going.

The wine tasted fine.

He wanted more!

============================

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

Are you genetically superior?

Can you imagine not having been born? Probably not. Yet every year thousands of pregnancies are being terminated. In a few scenario's I can understand why: when the pregnancy is life threatening to the mother, and when she was raped but other than that? No. Still: 90 Percent of all British parents end the pregnancy when they find out their child will be born with Down's syndrome. 

In The United States of America around 70 percent of infants with Down's are never born. Because their parents don't want them to. Apparently parents want 'the perfect child'. Of course you want your child to be healthy and happy. But kids with Down's cán be happy and healthy. If given a chance that is.

There was an article that said Icelandic parents are the worst and abort 100% of all foetuses with Down's. It was in an American newspaper. So for the most part untrue. 

However, the fact remains that in most countries women (it's seldom the father who chooses) can decide if they find a defect reason enough to end a pregnancy. 

Do we really want a world without people with all kind of shortcomings? A world without Stephen Hawking, Frida Kahlo, Andrea Bocelli and all those other people who are considered 'handicapped' but also inspired so many others to overcome disabilities and give the world so much in art, science, sports? Who decided that people with disabilities aren't fully functioning human beings and should be terminated?

Who are we to decide who lives and who dies? 

I know and have known several people with several kinds of disabilities. None of them I consider sub-human. Yet society does. Why do you think that society only wants some kind of 'Übermensch' to walk the Earth? And isn't that one of the things we hated the Nazis for?

Here's what I think of people (not just men) who think they are more worthy of life because they are 'genetically superior':

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

Perhaps not (a story)

They were sitting in the back garden of a mansion that was hundreds of years old. 

At some point - according to unconfirmed but lasting rumours - 

deserted soldiers from the army of Napoleon had sought refuge here. 

And found it.

It was a lovely summer's eve and the warm temperatures of the day 

were preparing for the night. The wood chips and sticks in the fire basket 

did their best to heighten the mood. 

It worked.

She was sitting on his lap and they were smoking a cigarette together.

Both stared into the fire and listened to the flames' lively struggle for oxygen.

Both saw and heard something else. 

Or perhaps not.

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

Are you being useful? Who decides you are and why?

'I don't have the time' is a sorry excuse and basically means: 'I prefer to spend my time in a different way than others.' We all are given the same amount of time. It's okay to watch Netflix, read, take long walks, play the guitar as a hobby...it doesn't mean you're not useful to society. Sometimes not standing in the way of others is a good contribution. Over the course of years (I was born in 1967) I've learned you don't have to be 'useful' all the time. But that wasn't always the case:

My most extreme busy day (I used to let life live me instead of vice versa) was when I got my son to the daycare center at 7 in the morning to be home for a meeting of the local Socialist Party fraction at my place because it would save me traveling time. At 08:15 I went to work, leaving my comrades with the dishes. 

On my lunchbreak (back when I worked at The Amsterdam Dungeon. Great times: shouting at German tourists, telling Dutch tough guys to hand in their phones when the thing went of during the show and they answered the call, removing a Russian who actually drew a gun on me but I managed to usher out as the character I played...) reading a budget proposal for that night's counsel meeting, hurrying to the daycare center to pick up my son, picking up a pizza on our way home, waiting for the babysit, hurrying to that evening's counsel meeting, not waiting for the afterdrinks, calling the babysit to check if she and my son were okay, hurrying to a nightclub were I worked from eleven till four, coming home around five, finding the babysit asleep, take a shower, drink coffee, fixing breakfast for my son, the babysit and myself, walking to the busstop together, saying thank you and goodbye to the babysit, taking my son to afterschool and go to work.

Reading back how my life was I already get tired. How did I manage? For one, I was somewhat younger as this was around 2006.

Now I'm in my fifties I'm glad I've learned to enjoy a quiet afternoon at the waterfront, just contemplating, looking at the birds, the water and the clouds. 

Without worrying for a moment people may not find me 'useful to society'.

I try not to have too many appointments but sometimes life doesn't agree with me and my agenda doesn't look like a series of appointments but more like a level in Tetris. 

It will slow down again, I'm sure of it. This is just temporary.

Who decides who and what is useful anyway? Do you consider yourself useful to society?

=================================================================

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

Unavoidable (a short story)

Their love was forbidden and they knew what they did was wrong.

Tomorrow they would wallow in negative feelings but first there was tonight...

Let me

take you 

in my arms

Let's

- as if time does not exist -

float 

on a sea of guilt

that threatens our fellow man.

Is it wrong to turn our heads away from what is

unavoidable?

=======================================

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

Do you have a minute?

When people ask me 'Do you have a minute?'

and I answer them 'No' they see that as encouragement

to interrupt my work or train of thought. 

They don't acknowledge my denial as an answer to their question. 

Let alone that they leave or hang up the phone.

Why is that?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who encounters this form of rudeness.

Of course I asked people why they ask me their questions or tell me about their problems or challenges anyway but never received an actual reply. Usually they get angry or mumble an uninspired fake apology.

Some are simply rude but most are extremely bored. I understand that (well, I don't because there is always something to do. If not for yourself, there's always a family member or a neighbour that could use some help and there are millions of unread books) but why do they assume I am bored too?

Some mistake my 'no' for not being interested in them as a person or their story. To be totally honest, I really am not interested in their complaint that the neighbour refuses to teach his cat not to shit in their garden or their favourite Netflix-series has been canceled. 

When I have the time I am usually willing to listen but strangely enough people aren't always happy with my remark: 'If that's the biggest problem in your life, you're one very lucky human being.'

============================================

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

Is reading a news article really that difficult?

'To read the entire article and see all the pictures, click the link in the tweet.'

Apparently a lot of people seem to think the 280 characters in a tweet, posted by a news agency contain an entire article. Therefore they need to be told to click the link embedded in the tweet.

Have people become numb to the news? Do they not care anymore? There must be a reason why they don't take the time to read actual news articles. I flatout refuse to believe they really do not know how.

Could it be people simply stopped to care about what happens to other people?

In the thirties of the previous century a group of people was treated as second rate citizens.

The general populace did not seem to care:

'Who cares? I'm not Jewish so it doesn't bother me.'

Only a decade later Jews were rounded up and killed.

Most people still didn't care 'Because I'm not Jewish and I don't even have Jewish friends.'

Things changed a little when their neighbour Mo was taken from his house:

'Why take my neighbour? I know he's Jewish but he has never done any harm!' 

But most decided to close the curtains, pretending it didn't happen.

Now jump to our time: will you do something when your Muslim neighbour Mo is taken from his home, simply because he is Muslim?

Is this a made up scenario? Not at all. It happens all around the world. On a daily basis. And most of us simply close our curtains, pretending we don't see.

I like to think I wouldn't but the truth is I simply don't know how I would act.

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

Every Cent (a short story)

Her thoughts were drifting in a language he did not understand. And even if he could read her mind and even if he could comprehend her words, he would not understand them.

What he did understand was the kiss she gave him. She smelled and tasted of red wine, poured from a bottle that had been open too long. He cherished the moment which he knew would not last. There was her friend. With a new round of drinks. 

She looked like a lady who had just stepped out of the billboard for a Spanish cult film and he danced with her. With his hand around her waist he was entranced. 

She pressed against him and his heart was warmed by the sweetness of her heart.

She whispered in his ear: 'I haven't had sex in two years. Will you come and have coffee with me soon?'

Half an hour later a transvestite told him: 'Trust me, she is worth every cent.'

===================================================

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

Virtual conversation with an angry pensioner

'Foreigners are just too lazy to work and still get money!

Why should I pay for their lifestyles!?'

'You are a pensioner and never worked a day in you life, madame.'

'Yeah, but my hushand worked really hard for my pension!'

'So you're okay with someone else working

so you can reap the benefits?'

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon